Well mechanism



July 1, 1924. 1,499,383

' M. E. LAYNE ET AL WELL MECHANISM 1922 2 Sheets-Szee. 1

F|E-1Q.

Filed March 6 FIEJ- H. 1.3... ...i-nail /NVENTOR July l, 1924.

1,499,383 M. E. LAYNE ET AL WELL MECHANISM Filed March 6, 1922 2 Sheets-SheeL 2 Patented July 1, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MAHLON E. LAYNE AN D SAMUEL N. HALL, OF I/US ANGELES, CALIFOxtN IA; SAID HALL ASSIGNOR TO SAID LAYNE.

WELL MECHANISM.

Application led March 6, 1922. Serial No. 541,289.

T 0 al? whom. i! may concern.'

Be it known that we. MAHLoN E. LAYNE and SAMUEL N. HALL, both citizens of the United States. residing at Los Anfreles, in the county of Los Angeles and ltate of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tell Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to well mechanism and particularly to pump mechanism involvingl the use of a pump placed in or adjacent the water of the well and transmission and discharge mechanism extending to the surface of the ground and comprising a vertical operating shaft surrounded by a protecting and hearing supportin casing, and a discharge casing surroun( ing the shaft casing.

It often happens that the well bore is not straight and as a result, the discharge casing is correspondingly bent out of true. 'In such case. if the shaft casing is held concentric with the discharge casing by the usual spider or other bracing means, such shaft casing is bent out of true in correspondence with the shaft casing, thus causing the bearings in the shaft casing to bind the shaft and resulting in large power losses and undue Wearingr of the bearings.

In our application, Serial Number 408.941, filed September 8, 1920, we disclosed means for applying tension to the shaft casing for holding it straight, and self adjusting bracing means arranged at intervals alongr the length of the two casings and adapted to be applied after the casings were assembled, so that regardless of any lack of trueness in the discharge casing, the shaft casing might be held perfectly true and straight and braced in such position. The present invention is directed to a species of the broad invention disclosed in such prior application, and its object to provide a very cheap and simple Way of applying said broad invention, and one which may be more readil applied to our standard type of well equipment than the articular embodiment of the invention illustrated and described in` the prior application.

In said prior application, the wedge bracin means were designed to be released after t e casings were assembled by a vertical movement of the shaft casing, which casingwas capable of such movement by reason of the spring tension feature applied at the lower end of the shaft casing. In

the present construction, the wedges are made releasable by a flexible means such as a cable, extending up between the two casings, so that no movement of the shaft casing is necessary in order to release the wedges, this beingr accomplished by pulling upward on the cable after the casings are assembled. This construction does not therefore require thc use of the spring tension feature, and may be easily applied to our standard well construction. The spring tension feature of the prior application is one of value, and it may be desirable to use it in connection with the Wedge releasing means of the present application. but in other cases, it may he advisable not to use the sp1-in;r tension feature, in which the present relcasc menus is advisable because of its simplicity and ease of operation. For this reason the spring tension feature of the prior application is not illustrated in the present application, but it will he understood that. It may be used, and further, that in the use of the present construction tension is actually applied to (he shaft casing in the Way hcreinafter described to pull it straight before the bracing Wedges are released, although no spring means are used. Certain embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein;

Figure 1 is an assembled sectional view of the upper part of a. pump equipment embodying the invention. Fig. l is a sectional view of the lower part of such equipment including the pump itself. Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section at one of the bracing devices between the ldischarge and shaft casings. Fig. 3 is a section on the lines IIIWIH of Fig. 2, and Figwi is an enlarged vertical section showing a modi lied form of bracingdevice.

Referrin first to the general arrangement of F 1g. 1 which illustrates an assembled pump embodying the invention hereinafter described, the principal parts are as follows: 1 is the pump casing of a single sta e pump in which are mounted the impellers 2 secured to the drive shaft 3; 4 is the shaft casing carrying a series of spaced bearings 5; 6 is the discharge casing secured to the pump casing and extendingto the surface of the ground and having the fifty feet to several hundred feet below the' surface of the ground a number of these devices will be employed, and it will :also be understood that the number of sections of shaft, shaft casing and discharge casing. as illustrated in Fig. 1, may be multiplied to meet conditions, drawings showing for convenience of illustration, a minimum number of such sections.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the bracing.

device comprises the ring member 10 secured to the coupling 11 and provided with a series of vertical guideways 12 (Fig. 3) spaced at equal intervals around the ring. Mounted in these guideways 12 are the wedges 13. Fig. 2 shows these `wedges in inoperative position being held in the position shown by the cord or other flexible member 14 which passes through perforations 15 in the wedges. These wedges are.secured in osition as the 'casings are assembled, so t at when. the structure is completed and positioned in the ground there is a plurality of wedging devices all held in inoperative position by the cords and spaced at suitable intervals along the length of the casing. In order to provide means for releasing the wedges and permitting them to drop to operative position a flexible member, preferably a small wire rope or cable 16 is employed. As the sections are assembled and the wedges secured in position by means of the cords 14, such cords are secured to the cable 16 by means of the small ropes or wires 17. In order to release the wed es the upper end of the cable is grasped t rough the outlet opening 7 and suflicient force is supplied to break the various cords 14 which support the wedges, thus permitting them to drop to* operative position. In order to facilitate this breaking loose of the cords 14 slack is provided in the cable 16 between the successive cords 14 .so that when force is applied to the cable the cords will be broken one after the other instead of all together.

To assist gravity in positioning the wedges after the cords are broken, small springs 18 may be employed if desired, the upper ends being secured to hooks 19 in the bottoms of the wedges and to hooks 20 screwed into the shaft casing. In order to prevent any upward movement of the wedges when force is applied to the cable 16 to break the cords 14, small stud bolts 21 may be screwed into the shaft casing just above the upper ends of the wedges. To appl-tension to the shaft casing 4 to insure that it may be pulled straight before the wedges are released, the coupling 22 (Fig. 1) is screwed up tightly, the shaft casing 6 acting as a strut opposing this tension. In this way the shaft casing may be made straight even though the discharge casing is somewhat out of true incident to the well bore not being entirely straight. When the cable 16 is pulled upward breaking the cords 14, the wedges all drop to wedging position in the rings 10, each wedge sliding down until it acts as a bracing means. These bracing means securely hold the shaft casing in true position thus avoiding the imposition of any binding strain on the shaft bearings in the casin It will be seen that this species of bracing means may be readily -applied to a standard type of well construction and that the devices may be applied easily and conveniently during the usual assembling operation.v Also that the' cable and securing cords constitute an effective and cheap means for securing the positioning of the wedges after the parts are assembled and independent of any movement of the shaft casing such as that required in the form of invention illustrated in our rior application heretofore referred to. d) wide variety of wedge constructions, releasable holding means, and longitudinally extendin holding means might be employed in ace of the ones shown without departing fli'om the spirit of the invention which contemplates any and all means for releasing the wedges independent of any movement of the shaft casing.

It will be apparent that the invention is not limited to the use of wedges as bracing means although wedges constitute the preferred bracing means. For instance, in the construction of Fig. 4, the bracing is accomplished by meansA of a series of referably three cylinders A, spaced aroun the circumference of the discharge casing and provided with the pistons 24 carrying the rods 25. The ends of these rods are pivotally connected to a ring 26 mounted upon the shaft casin The rear ends of these rods have a bal and socket connection 27 with the pistons so that the parts may adjust themselves in case the axis of the cylinderdoesnot come exactly in line with the center line of the ring 26. Pressure is applied behind the pistons by means of. a pipe 28 connected with a source of fluid pressure by means of the pipe 29 runnin upward to the surface of the ground. check valve 30 is located in a connection 31 so that after the duid pressure has been applied any backward movement of the piston is prevented. The fluid used is preferably oil, and the ressure is applied after the casings have en positioned in the well. It will be noted that this method of applying the bracing device is like the first form of device illustrated in that the braces may be adjusted independent of any movement of the shaft casing, although not so desirable as the preferred construction because of the complication and expense involved.

What we claim is:

1. In combination in a well mechanism, a pump, a discharge casing extending upwardly from the pump, a power transmission shaft extending upward from the pump, a shaft casing surrounding the shaft and provided with a. series of spaced bearings for the shaft, aseries of self-adjusting bracing means arrangpd at intervals along the length of the sha casing between such casing and the discharge casing, and adapted w 'en in operative position to hold the shaft casing rigidly against lateral movement with res ect to the discharge casing, means for ho ding said devices in inolperative position during the assembling of t e casings, and means independent of the shaft casing for releasing said bracing means one after the other after the casings are assembled.

2. In combination in a well mechanism, a pump, a discharge casing extending upwardly from the pump, a power transmission shaft extending upward from the pump, a shaft casing surrounding the shaft and provided with a series of spaced bearings for the shaft, a series of wedges arranged at intervals along the length of the shaft casing between suchcasing and the discharge casing, means for holding the wedges in inoperative position during the assembling of the casings, and releasing means for the wedge holding means extending up between the casi-rigs to the upper end thereof whereby the wedges may be released one after the other and move to operative position after the casings are assembled.

3. In combination in a well mechanism, a pump, a discharge casing extending upwardly from the ump, a power transmission shaft exten ing upward from the pump, a shaft casing surrounding the shaft and provided with a series of spaced bearings for the shaft, a series of Wedges arranged at intervals along the length of the shaft casing between such casing and the discharge casing, means for holding the wedges in inoperative position duringthe assembling of the casiiigs, and a flexible member arranged to release the wedge lidlding means one after the other extend up between the casings to the upper en thereof whereby the wedges may be released and move to operative position after the casings are assembled.

4; In combination in a well mechanism, a pump a discharge casing extending upwardly from the pump, a power transmission 4shaft extending upward from the pump, a shaft casing surrounding the shaft and providedwith a series of spaced bearings for the shaft, a series of wedges arranged at intervals along the length of the shaft casing between such casing and the discharge casing, means for releasably securing the wedges to the shaft casing above their positions of use, and a flexible means extending up between the casings to the upper end thereof and secured to the wedge securing means for releasing such means and permitting the wedges to move to wedgng position after the easings are assembled, such flexible means having slack between the successive securing means so that the wedges may be released one after the other.

5. In combination in a well mechanism, a pump, a discharge casing extending upwardly from the pump, a power transmission shaft .extending upward from the pump, a shaft casing surrounding the shaft and provided with a series of spaced bearings for the shaft, a series of wedges arranged at intervals along the length of the shaft between such casing and the discharge casing, flexible securingr means for fastening the wedges releasably to the ,shaft casing above their positions of use, and a fiexible means extending up between the casings to the upper end thereof and fastened to said securing means for releasing such means and permitting the wedges to move to wedging position' after the casings are assembled. MAHLON E. LAYNE.

S. N. HALL.

isis'n 

